Robert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children's literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series.
R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children's author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.
Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids' Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA's Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.
Ben Shipley is obsessed with aliens; he spends all day in chat rooms, talking about them, and he desperately wants to make contact. But Ben should be careful what he wishes for, because he starts getting messages on his computer about an imminent alien invasion, and shortly after, he begins to notice the people around him behaving very strangely. Ben doesn't know who to turn to, and isn't even sure if he can trust his own parents anymore.
Okay it's time for another Nightmare Room book!I picked Visitors from last month,because the cover is pink and that was part of my theme for last month.The story follows Ben Shipley.He is obsessed with proving aliens exist.He is always in chat rooms dealing with aliens.He lives in Rockwell and says he has proof this time that aliens do exist.He says he found a rock in the woods that makes a noise and he wants to show his friends.He does end up showing them but they don't belive him. With all of this alien talk,Ben does have bullies.They grab him one day and lift his shirt up and flick his belly button.You see Ben has a outie Belly button and is teased alot about it.Ben ends up going in the woods one day and sees this weird marking in the woods.It's a figure eight.He is excited because he thinks it's from an alien spaceship.He runs to tell his friends but his mom tells him to eat dinner first.He thinks he needs to hurry before it disapears.When he finally gers his friends over,they still think it's just some cut grass.Discouraged,Ben goes to get on the computer to see what is going on and he sees a warning message from a person named zandor.He tells him to watch out because there is an invasion happening and he even gives some warning signs.a couple of those signs are people acting really different,and amphibians showing up in random places.All of this begins happening,like a girl skating a figure 8 and his parents acting strange in the attic.More and more things point out to the person in the chatroom being right.This one was ok.I honestly liked alot of the alien stuff in this book but the pacing was just to slow for my taste.We don't see the aliens until the last three or four chapters and even after that it was still underwhelming.I did however like the twist.It was ridiculous,but Stine came up with an answer for everything.I give Visitors a three out of five stars.
This final standalone story in the Nightmare Room series doesn't exactly go out with a bang. It's essentially an Invasion of the Body Squeezers 2.0 - complete with the tiring "You gotta believe me" stuff, and late & lackluster final act. Stine has done much better sci-fi/alien type stories; Brain Juice and Egg Monsters From Mars have proven that. This one isn't quite bad enough to merit a 1⭐ but it's one of my least favorites from the Nightmare Room.
Visitors The Nightmare Room The book starts off with a warning that aliens are coming and gives some signs to look out for. It says if you should see them to contact a man named Zander. Ben is looking at this in a chat room. Ben has found real proof that aliens exists but his parents think it’s all non-sense so he hasn’t told them or his brother Will. Ben hears a and then finds his brother who says Biscuit (their dog) ate his frog.sh (Godzilla). His mom promises to find the fish and hey head off to school. Biscuit has found a troll doll earlier and Will called it an ailen baby. Ben wishes it really is.
Before meeting up with his friends Summer and Jeff, Ben is harassed by two bullies Dennis and Ricky. Ben snows his friends a smooth, oval, white, rock and asks them if they can hear the tones. But they just look at him like he’s crazy. He found the rock while walking Biscuit, discovered a different path, and then heard a ringing and then found it coming from the rock. Biscuit hears it too aond starts to whine and doesn’t want the rock near (him-her). Ben wonders if there’s something wrong with his friends. In class, the teacher says it’s time for their term paper topics. Jeff is doing the Aztec Indians. Summer is doing the rise of women’s sports. When Ben is called he says he’s doing alien visitors. The teachers says he did his last two papers on that topic and he’ll have to pick another topic. But he insists he has proof. The other kids tease him until Summer defeats him. But he knows he sound crazy. The teacher says he he has until tomorrow to find another topic. He sends Summer a note that says thanks for believing in him and he asks does she believe him. She shrugs.
In the lunch room, Ben hears the rock being again. Ricky grabs the rock, asks where he got it, and then tosses it to Dannis. Then he passes it to a friend and soon they have a game going of keep away. All the while Ben is hearing it beep. Ricky tosses the rock out the window. Frantically Ben runs out to find it., but it’s gone. Ricky looks at Ben and gives him a cold smile. Ben wonders if she knows what she did. Mrs. Crenshaw (one of his teachers) seems to believe him when he tells her. She wants to see it but he says he lost it. She says if he finds it she’d like to see it and warns him that he should be careful who he shows these things too.
It finally happens! Over his headphones Ben hears a conversation between two aliens who plan on landing at his address. Ben is torn because his headphones only reach so far. He wants to hear everything but he also wants to see them land in the backyard. But it turns out to be Will andhis girlfriend. Summer kicks then out the room, but she tells Ben he needs to get another interest. He just doesn’t seem to understand why more kids don’t believe considering he’s heard a lot of talk of aliens coming in the chat room. Summer tells him she has to go home but she’ll be back and they’re getting out the house. His mom beats her to the punch and makes Ben go take a short walk. He reaches a place far into the woods with a figure eight burned into the grass. Then he’s shocked contiously by something. When he steps inside the right he’s glowing. Then it stops. Late, Ben takes Summer and Jeff to the figure right but all they see is smushed down grass. He tells them to stand inside it. Nothing happens. Ben steps inside and feels a shock that quickly makes him jump out. They only see him jump. His friends tell him he’s starting to sound really crazy. Then he hears something. There’s someone in the woods. Ben takes off running. They run toward Ben’s house. Ben turns his flashlight on and he sees bright blue. The light vanishes into the bushes and then the ailien is gone. They all hear a boom, but Jeff says maybe it’s just a snoic boom from a jet. Later, Zander sends him an email about the upcoming arrival of the aliens. He warns him about the signs and tells him to be cautious. The aliens aren’t friendly. Ben starts to get sleepy. His mom and dad aren’t back yet. They get back around 10. His mother’s mouth is in a grim line. Ben has questions but his dad just snaps at him. His dad seems to be really short tempered and sends him to bed early and tells him no internet surfing.
Later, Ben sees his mother go up to the attic (which is something she never does). He sees there’s a room up there and then he sees .. the blue glow. Her back is too him and she’s looking in a closet. When he confronts her and his dad they just tell him they were fixing up the attic for him. Later that night he has a dream where he’s in a field and the aliens have surrounded him and greet him by licking him He reaches out his hand to shake it’s slimy hand and then he realizes it’s not a dream. It’s Godzilla but he’s not alone. Ben’s bed is swarmed with frogs. In a flash though they all jump out the window and by the time his parents get there they only see Godzilla. Ben realizes he’s seen three of the warnings in Zander’s message (the blue lights, the swarm of reptiles, and his parents strange behavior).
While his mom and dad are out, Ben tries to go back to the attic but there’s a pad lock on the door. He writes the organization Zander is apart of to see if he can get in contact with him, tell him about the signs, and ask what he should do. Later his parents tell him they’ve had a talk with his teaher who says he insists on writing about aliens. They make him promise no more aliens and he does but only to shut them up. Later, he gets a message from someone who says they’ll contact him. When Summer takes Ben ice skaing he notices Rickey doing a figure eight and the thought hits him. He goes over to her and confronts her about being in the woods. He then confronts her about being an ailen. She tells him to stay away from her as her voice and eyes change. He pleads with her that he just wants to know more about her and then he blacks out.
Ben has just hit his head. Summer never saw the glow of Ricky’s eyes or heard her voice change. Ben thinks it over and thinks that maybe she was possessed by an alien and there ship must have burned the eight in the grass. At home, his parents are sitting outside in the cold. He hears some of their conversation. “He’s getting in the way” “I never wanted him to know” and “home planet”. When Ben gets back, his room is trashed. There’s a message on his computer screen. We don’t want to be discovered. This is your only warning! The police are called. Ben is grounded for admitting that he’s in the chat room almost every day, but he decides he’s not staying in his room. The alien invasion might be this weekend and that’s why they’re plotting to keep him in. He goes to talk to Ricky.
He follows Ricky to a store and sees her eating fertilizer, but then she catches him watching her and her eyes flash. He’s able to escape from her but bumps into Jeff and Summer. Again he tries to warn them about the ailencs coming but they’re over it and tell him to call them when he’s over the alien thing. On the way home, he sees signs of other aliens (a man eating green and a little girl in a car looking at him out the window). Mrs. Crenshaw is the only one that seems to believe him so he goes to talk to her at school, but when he opens the door to her classroom there’s a wall of metal cages full of creatures. Creatures that aren’t from earth. They look like eggs with thick fur. They don’t have eyes or legs. They start opening theier mouths and squeaking. There’a brown shaped thing in another cage that has sharper teeth. It’s pulsing with a blue light and the other things are leaning toward it. He starts to back out the room, but someone is coming. He squeezes into the bathroom and hides. Then he hears Ricky’s voice. She says they don’t have much time. Someone else says they’ll do whatever they need to help. Someone says Ben should be next. It’s a blond boy and a blond girl. It’s Summer and Jeff.
Summer says their weak and they need human hosts. The leader is keeping the others alive. They only have a day or two to find them hosts. = But there are dozens. That’s why they’re keeping them at the school. Tons of humans. Mrs. Crenshaw walks into the classroom and she’s one of them. She says they have to find host bodies and they have to find “the one”. Jeff says his host body ate something sticky and he has to wash his hands. He starts to come toward the bathroom. Jeff of course opens the door and sees Ben. They take him and try to merge him with one of the eggs. He pleads with Summer but she’s not there anymore. She shoves an egg into his mouth. He tries to vomit it up but it’s too late. They sent him home and ell him he he can help them tomorrow. On the way home, Ben gets an intense pain and the ailen doesn’t like this. Once he gets home, the pain gets worse and the ailen tells him he’s going to pay for the pain he’s causing it. It’s then that the pain gets worse and Ben realizes he’s dying.
But then the pain lets up and Ben wonders if the alien is gone. His mom and dad tell him shortly after this that the reason he’s so intererest in aliens is because he is one. They tell him how in the field with the right, they found his ship. They took him and had ears surgically made to cover the holes in his head. Then they also got him a belly button. He realizes this is why the ailen died. He’s not human. Ben then realizes how the others are going to get the kids to eat the eggs.
The next day is picture day. As the students are lead behind a screen, Summer and Jeff hold them down and stuff the eggs into their mouths. Ben gets an idea and puts the leader into his mouth There’s a struggle inside Ben and the lader and he feels like he’s lost and is about to die. But he doesn’t. Jeff and Summer apologize for the way they treated him as hosts and ask him how he was able to defeat the leader. He tells them it’s because he himself is an alien and of course they laugh it off and say yeah right.
My Thoughts This wasn’t bad. I had my suscipions right away about Rickey (normal for the story’s bad guy). There was a tiny bit of suscpion about the teacher. There was some also for Ben (because it’s always the one that doesn’t know). Jeff and Summer took me by surprise. When Ben was told I thought did they rip this plot from the pilot episode of Smallville (and the story of Superman)? The end was good but not as good as the Goosebump book where the kid turns into a (was it) monster or alien and then thinks oh what the he hell. I never liked these people (the other students) anyway. But overall, I did enjoy this series.
Rating: 6 Good solution to eat the leader!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Started reading this on my phone while I was stuck in line at the post office. I was pretty much hooked from the start. Sure I figured everything out but it was a fun ride. Nightmare Room books feel a tad bit more mature than the newer Goosebump books which I find out. Now I need to see if this had a tv episode.
Are there aliens that exist out there in the universe? Ben was determined to find out.
At first, he mostly obsesses over the rock that he found and his inverted belly button. The belly button thing was kind of weird. I didn’t really get into the whole aliens thing here, so this wasn’t really a good read for me. Certainly not Stine’s best.
I’m just not the most interested in alien stories, I’m afraid. That doesn’t mean I won’t read a book that’s about aliens but they’re just not my favourites.
ben shipley a 7th standard student, believes that aliens exist and he recently also found proof to show his freinds that they do exist. but reality is something different when ben finds out that his school mates who bully him have been possessed by aliens also his parents reveal that he himself is an alien and they found him in woods. a very boring book read it only if you have time to kill.
بیگانگان - از سری کتابهای تالار وحشت شماره 12 در مورد کتاب : بن شیپلی هر شب آسمان ها را به دنبال موجوداتی از فضا کاوش می کند. اما بن نمی داند که یک موجود فضایی واقعی و زنده در فاصله ی خیلی نزدیک تر از آنچه که تصورش را می کند به سر می برد...
Worst R.L. Stine book I have read to date. Perhaps it's because my interest in aliens has long went down the gutter when I hit puberty, which was a very long time ago, so the idea of a book talking about aliens with a really very annoying protagonist does not fascinate me one bit.